Thanks to everyone who has replied, I appreciate your advice. Out of the 65% North American travel I'll be doing, I'd say 2/3rds would be to the US and 1/3 within Canada.

I'm too much of a noob to know what I want out of a FFP (status vs free flights). Well okay...I know what I want....both as quickly as possible. Lol

I'd normally just have signed up to Air Canada but a friend who frequently travels Air Canada did some research and signed up to Turkish Airlines FFP in the end as *G is easier to get and keep (starting to learn your abbreviations).

I've browsed various sites before coming across this forum and the names that frequently came up as the best FFPs were Asiana, Aegean, Turkish and UA. Nobody seems to be bragging about Air Canada's FFP which had me hesitant.

Given I'll probably be flying mostly Air Canada is the consenus that it's probably still the best choice even if it's not the best FFP?

As a last point my colleague pointed out that he's sitting on a mountain of unused e-upgrade points. When he flies for personal reasons he does what most people do and selects the cheapest fare, which isn't eligible for upgrade. For him to use the points he'd need to spend on average $400 more for a higher fare class which doesn't feel worth it to him.